ATMS 100 Exam 1 Questions & Answers Solved 100%

Which gases are the primary constitutes of the atmosphere? - Answer Nitrogen: 78% Oxygen: 21% Carbon Dioxide: .038% Argon: 1% What is the difference between weather and climate? - Answer Weather is the atmospheric conditions at a particular time and place, whereas climate is the average weather over a long period of time (10+ years). Climate is what you expect, and weather is what you get. What is the difference between satellites and radar? - Answer Satellites observe clouds from space while radar observes precipitation from the ground. What is the Doppler radar? - Answer The Doppler radar can sense motion of precipitin particles toward or away from the radar. How is wind direction defined? - Answer Wind direction is identified by the direction from which the wind is blowing. Ex. A north wind blows from the north. How do winds blow around high and low pressure systems in the Northern Hemisphere and how does this influence the temperatures near these systems? - Answer Winds blow in a counter-clockwise circulation and inward around low pressure systems and clockwise and outward around high pressure systems. This creates clouds and/or rain in the low systems and clear skies in the high. What is pressure and how does it change with height? - Answer Pressure is the weight of the molecules above you, and pressure ALWAYS DECREASES with height. What is the average atmospheric pressure (in mb) at sea level? - Answer Average atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1013.25 mb. What is density and how does it change with height? - Answer Air density is how much "stuff" is in a given space, calculated mass/volume. It, like pressure ALWAYS DECREASE with height because gravity pulls most air molecules closest to the surface. Why is pressure corrected to sea level? - Answer There is a pressure difference due to elevation. Meteorologists must correct pressure to sea level to remove variability in order to get a clear picture of the weather. What is a lapse rate? - Answer Lapse rate is the rate at which the temperature decreases with height. What is an inversion? - Answer Inversion is the layer in which the temperature increases with height. What is the troposphere? - Answer The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere (8-12 km deep). It contains all the earth's weather, and temperature usually (but not always) decreases with height. (Sun heights ground, ground heats air). How is the atmosphere divided into layers? What are they? - Answer They are, from bottom to top, the troposphere (weather), tropopause (marks top of troposphere), stratosphere (inversion layer - temp increases with height, or ozone layer), stratopause (marks top of stratosphere), mesosphere ("middle atmosphere" - temp decreases with height), mesopause (marks top of mesosphere), and thermosphere (temp increases with height). What is temperature? - Answer Temperature is a measure of the average speed of molecules in a substance. How does temperature affect air density? - Answer Warm air is less dense, because molecules move faster, collide more, and are prone to rise. Cold air is more dense because move slower, collide less, and are prone to sink. What is sensible heat? - Answer Sensible heat is heat that can be sensed or measured with a thermometer. What is latent heat? - Answer Latent heat is energy absorbed or released during a phase change (hidden energy). An example of this is evaporation. What are the phase changes of water? Which are warming and which are cooling processes? Why? - Answer The phase changes of water are solid, liquid, and gas. Warming processes are processes that release latent heat into the environment, while cooling processes absorb latent heat from the environment. Warming includes: deposition (vapor to ice), condensation (vapor to water), and freezing (water to ice). Cooling includes: sublimation (ice to vapor), evaporation (water to vapor), and melting (ice to water).